As a gamer with decades of experience under my belt, I can’t help but feel a pang of nostalgia as I see the once-ubiquitous Redbox kiosks being phased out. Growing up, these little movie rental machines were an essential part of my weekend routine – popping in a few quarters for a night of entertainment was always a treat.
The Redbox service has come to an end, leaving retailers who previously provided movie rentals pondering about how to handle the large machines standing outside their shops.
During the summertime, the company that owns Redbox and Chicken Soup for the Soul, filed for a different type of bankruptcy – Chapter 7 instead of Chapter 11. This change means that the company will be dissolved and its assets sold off to pay back its debts, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. The company has left this substantial debt behind when it closed its operations.
Currently, it’s up to retailers to determine how to handle the remaining machines. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Brian Rady, a former Redbox finance executive, predicts that it could cost retailers approximately $500 USD per machine to remove them. In some cases, these machines are cemented into the ground, making their removal an expensive and complex task for stores such as Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS.
Approximately 24,000 Redbox kiosks that no longer operate can be found parked outside retail establishments, according to the Wall Street Journal. A few of these machines are directly connected to the store’s power supply.
According to the report, Walgreens continues to spend $184,000 per month on electricity to keep the machines operational, despite the fact that these machines no longer offer rental services; they are connected to the store’s main power source instead.
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2024-10-11 22:57